South Africa challenge excites McCullum – Cricket News Update
New Zealand skipper, Brendon McCullum, has praised his upcoming opponents South Africa by terming them as a disciplined unit, but is hopeful that his team can get the better of them in the upcoming T20 series.
While New Zealand were forced to name a relatively inexperienced squad, owing to various reasons which ranged from internal disputes to personal, South Africa also tinkered with their T20 group in a bid to manage the extended workload of some of their star players.
AB de Villiers, who was named the team’s limited-overs skipper last year, won’t be leading the T20 side despite being named as part of the squad. Instead, the team will be captained by Faf du Plessis, who has quickly become a permanent feature for the national side over the past couple of months.
Moreover, it is also likely that de Villiers may relinquish his wicket-keeping duties as well after the Proteas named Quinton de Kock in the squad. The youngster is expected to don the gloves and is further seen as a long term replacement in the Test arena, having impressed with his ability in recent times.
Furthermore, the home side won’t have the services of Jacques Kallis, and will be looking on players like David Miller and Henry Davids to come good. However, their relative inexperience in the T20 group means that New Zealand will have a fair chance to upset their daunting opponents, despite facing a similar scenario in the absence of Ross Taylor, Tim Southee and Jacob Oram.
McCullum was still in awe his upcoming opponents, but sees it an opportunity for his side to make their presence count.
"We know South Africa are going to be uncompromising, very fit, strong and disciplined. We know they are an extremely well-skilled team," McCullum said. "South Africa have got a form advantage over us but we're excited about the opportunity to play them. If we put them under pressure and get some of their inexperienced guys to have to deal with that pressure then maybe we will able to learn a bit about ourselves and hopefully come out on top."
The series begins with the opening T20I on December 21.
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